Hundreds join Boston student walkout

Hundreds of Boston students walked out of school Monday and marched to Beacon Hill to protest millions in budget cuts.

Flocks of students numbering more than a thousand boarded buses and trains, hoisted signs in the street and posed on the steps of the Massachusetts State House, beginning a densely packed rally at the bandstand in Boston Common around noon.

Protesters chanted, "SOS! Save our schools," as the politicians walked to their cars. Walsh waved and shook a few demonstrators' hands.

"I commend them for their advocacy," Walsh told the State House News Service, referring to protesters. He added that he did, however, wish they had stayed in school for the day. "We still have a ways to go. We've made a large increase in the school budget this year, and we're going to continue to work to close that divide."

Boston plans to appropriate $1.27 billion for schools in fiscal year 2017, which is up $13.5 million over this year, according to the News Service. State aid in Massachusetts, meanwhile, is slated to inch up 1.6 percent next fiscal year.

A spokeswoman for Walsh told the News Service Monday that claims the budget had already been slashed were inaccurate and based on out-of-date information.

"Mayor Walsh has increased funding for Boston Public Schools by nearly $90 million since he took office, including an increase of $13.5 million for the upcoming school year, despite stagnant state education aid," Laura Oggeri, a Walsh spokeswoman, said in a statement. "The increased appropriation in his first two years was more than the increase of all other city departmental appropriations combined."